Raise your hand if you think the market research industry provides value!

Raise your hand if you think the market research industry is important!

Raise your hand if you think the market research industry can save companies money from making huge manufacturing mistakes!

Raise your hand if you think the market research industry is helpful in introducing new products!

Is your hand raised? Mine is and I truly hope yours is as well!

If all that is true, why don’t we read in the newspaper that market research was very instrumental in helping this new product launch?

If all that is true, why don’t we watch a report on TV that highlights how critical market research was with a new service that is being offered by a Fortune 500 company?

If all that is true, why don’t I constantly read online articles that highlight the importance of market research in picking a new site for a restaurant?

I say it’s time for researchers to promote this great industry and the importance of market research.

I realize that not all clients will allow their new service/product to be highlighted in the press – BUT surely some will.

What are your thoughts?

Do you agree with what I am saying?

When was the last time you read/saw the importance of market research highlighted?

I look forward to reading your comments.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 9th, 2011 at 8:30 am and is filed under Business.
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3 Responses to “Attention Researchers – We Need To Do A Better Job Promoting…” - Leave a Reply

Unfortunately, 30 years in the industry have given me some answers to what I think Merrill intended as rhetorical questions. Why don’t we read in the paper? Because the paper does not even cover the product launch, never mind the research. The paper covers wars, fires, crimes — you get the picture. TV is a similar story.

However, I also say it’s time for researchers to promote this great industry and the importance of market research. I just think it needs to be in specialized media targeted to our niche audience, not in the general media. I think the industry does an OK job of promotion in the MR industry itself (e.g. Quirk’s, conferences), but we overlook two important audiences: direct end users (e.g. Brand Managers and Product Development Managers) and executive management (e.g. CEOs, VPs of Marketing). We need to find more different outlets to reach those audiences.

Merrill acknowledges that not all clients will allow their new service/product to be highlighted in the press – BUT surely some will. Well, yes, some will — but my goodness what an uphill battle this is. To illustrate, let me share two of my attempts.

In one case, I had conducted a study for a “tourist attraction.” They had never conducted marketing research before. Based entirely on actions taken as a direct result of the marketing research, the attraction more than doubled its visitors within 2 years. I suggested a Quirk’s article as an opportunity for additional publicity for the attraction, and pointed out we could work to get broader media coverage once the Quirk’s article was published. Sure this would have benefited marketing research in general and my company in particular, but it also would have garnered valuable additional publicity for the attraction — publicity they could not have purchased if they wanted to. Management refused. They objected to the publicity. The reason? They were afraid competing attractions would catch on to this marketing research thing they found so valuable!

In another case, I helped a law firm with a shopping center client. The state had condemned their center. There was nothing structurally wrong with it — condemnation is something the state can do if it wants the land. However, the state has to pay “damages.” As a result of the marketing research, the shopping center received many, many more millions of dollars than what the state had originally proposed. I figured in this case there was no real “competition,” so it seemed like an ideal case to use for publicity purposes. The law firm — could not be bothered spending time on it once their case was over. The publicity I was requesting? They just saw that as something which did not represent billable hours.

Just because finding clients who will allow their new service/product to be highlighted in the press is an uphill battle does NOT mean we should not engage in the battle. Rather, I share my thoughts on how challenging this is for the purpose of conveying that we should constantly remain alert looking for the rare opportunities.

I completely agree. I have a lot of MBA classmates with a marketing background that do not understand much about marketing research. It seems like marketing research goes behind the scenes without corporations giving it the credit it deserves.

Wow! You’ve echoed one of my stump speeches for years. You and Jeff are spot on, it is so disappointing to see how poorly our industry has articulated its value, and I recall that this was a major rallying cry from both of us when we were on the MRA board together.

Needless to say, as one who began his career (and fueled his interest in the power of marketing research) in the public relations industry, PR has been a key component of my firm’s marketing strategy.

True, a story about how MR led to a successful product launch won’t supercede coverage of the latest celebrity scandal in the popular press, but it can be effectively pitched to the broader trade press (and by broader I don’t mean just MR specific media, but business and category specific trade media). Hopefully we can continue to blaze this trail with our individual companies and through the associations.